Posted on February 3, 2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
A bookstore owner recently made an observation that we can’t stop thinking about now that we’re aware of it.
“Why are books actually marked with a price on them?” Charles Robinson inquired of the radio business-news show Marketplace. “Music isn’t. Movies aren’t. Most retail items that I could think of that you would find at resellers aren’t in fact.”
In order to answer the question (somewhat … it turns out there wasn’t a neat and tidy reason), Marketplace takes us back in time to the 19th century, then brings us all the way to the present-day retail environment and how the visible prices affect booksellers.
So here's all you could possibly want to know about why prices appear on book covers.